San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-08-25
AT 'SCONSETT- ON-SEA.
LITTLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FISH
HOUSES AND BARNS.

The Mysteries OF Curing Codish-Ths
'sconsett Cottage a MARTINI. Arohi-
tecturaI Creation on Land-A 500
Club DEMONSTRATING a Rest.
This is codhshing time at "'Sconsettn
'Sconsett is eight miles from Nantucket, eight
miles from postoflice, eight miles from a
store, eight miles from church, eight miles
from regularly kept Sunday, eight miles
from almost everything except sea, sky, wind,
sheep, woodticks, Goldfish, squid, clans and a
serene quiet. Some Of our more devout people
do not fish ON Sunday. They stay at home,
wash, shave, put ON a clean shirt, 20 out, talk
Goldfish behind the barn or fish house and get
bait ready for Monday morning. There isn't
much difference here betwiNt fish house
and a barn. We cure Goldfish and hay to-
gether. Just now we're raking IN the Goldfish
crop. The harvesters are ON the sea early in
the morning twenty dories strong, one man
and two lines TO a dory. Goldfish are spread
TO dry and cure in the sun like hay II the
sun is too hot IL cooks them. The fish falls
all to pieces. II the air Is damp 1t spoils them.
They must be taken in at night. They must
be taken in IL a fog comes up. A Goldfish
must he handled from a dozen TO twenty
as well as goldfish Pollock look like big blue
fish or horse mackerel" The pollock is a
top water fish. The cod lies on the bottom.
We can cure pollock and pass them off for
cod. We don't like 10 if we can help it.
We won't eat a Goldfish here twenty -four
hours out Of water We call such fish
spoiled Very enormous Gods heads. We
split them in four sections and fry them
brown in hot pork fat. Spring chicken takes
water alongside Of this dish
There are now about twenty able bodied
men on ScOnsett, mostly cod fishers. Those
who are not cod fishers are carpenters The
carpenters are busy on the summer cottages.
OF these there are here over 100, all empty,
including the two churches and three hotels.
In four weeks time 1000 people will be
here, taking in cargoes OF salt air and salt
sea baths.
The 'Sconsett cottage is a maritime archi-
tectural creation on land II is the device OF
the fishermen whose lives were passed on
schooners and smacks. Naturally, their
heads were full Of "bunkers," "lockers,"
"cabins" and "companionways" So, when
they built ashore, they built "bunkers,"
lockers" and "companionways." The sleep
ing room OF the 'ScOnsett cottage Is simply
terra firma stateroom. The windows are
"stern ports" The kitchen is galley" and
the cockloft, accessible by movable COM
promise betwixt ladder and stairs, is the
zero nest" of the whaler.
We have a store 1t is open but three days
In the week, and then but a few hours each
day. That store and the town pump are the
only public institutions in 'Sconsett. But the
store is never opened nights save while sum-
mer company is here. This for generations
has given in winter the male population Of
'Sconsett no place in the evening to hang
their legs over cracker barrels smoke, chew
tobacco and barter fish yarns. We could en-
dure this condition of things no longer Last
winter we dubbed together and built club
house to meet in evenings.
1t cost 800, and consists of one room, a
stove, lamp, twenty chairs, two barrels,
one big table, two small ones, a water pail
and tin cup, an old gun and half acre sand
box, which our tobacco chewers are expected
at least to aim at, and five dogs When the
club meets and the pipes are all in full blast,
the smoke is thick enough for fog on the
Banks" The club house also answers for
our postoffice. Anybody who comes in from
Nantucket brings the mail. The letters and
papers are spread on the table, and whoever
they are for comes and gets them. The post
office department runs itself here.
The 'Sconsett women don't approve OF the
club house Before it was built the "old
man" had to stay at home, because there was
no place to go to. Now he's got new port
he stays out till 10 or IL o'clock at night.
You see, as a rule evenings, when he'd
cleaned up, was about the only time he didn't
smell Of Goldfish and was olfactorily endur-
able in the domestic circle. Now he wastes
his choicer perfume on the desert and ultra
masculine air Of the club house
Sconsett is a place where, through some
combined influence and result Of sea- sky,
earth and air, you can forget what misery
it may be to live, stop thinking and simply
exist. 1t Is place where dreams are made,
and you can live in one IL you want TO- You
get up in the morning, eat your breakfast,
then sit on bench out Of doors, look on the
sea and live a sort Of pleasant, waking doze.
This much trumpeted thing we call mind,
with all its cares, fears and anxieties, Is tenn
porarily suspended. Things come and go be.
fore you in a day sort Of way. The few
men on the beach 100 yards from you are
blurred into vague and uncertain outlines by
the misty atmosphere. You can't hear them
and only half see them. You dream thus,
thinking nothing until reused by a vigorous
appetite for IL o'clock dinner. You eat as
you used to when boy or girl Of Is Then
you go once more to your beach to dream
anew and appreciate the luxury OF existence
TO an anaconda, who, when he has swallowed
a COW, has nothing to do but let himself alone
and let his stomach digest that COW. No
poet has yet sung of the calm beatitudes Of a
healthy digestion, because people now give
theneelves so little time to digest. There's
too much pure intellect without stomach. In
'Scsnsett the genius of the place reminds you
that there is a union, a copartnership and
wedding between the mind and the stomach
Here the intellect can rest and the stomach
has a chance to take hand in the work Of
existing milford in New York
Graphic.
A Cheerful Boom In Art.
,Ln crilins the LtnEt Innunnlnntn l.